1. Field of the Invention
In the electronic field, and especially in the radio telephone field, multi-push button switches are extremely useful. The various buttons of such a switch are generally designated with numerical and/or alphabetic symbols and connected in circuitry so as to initiate a variety of tones or other circuits upon the depressing thereof. These multi-button switches are often used in portable radios and the like where severe weather conditions may prevail and where size is a dominating requirement.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A great many prior art, multi-push button switches have been devised wherein metal impregnated elastomeric material is utilized to complete a contact when a button is depressed. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,294 entitled "Keyboard Digital Coding, Switch for Digital Logic, and Low Power Detector Switches" describes a switch utilizing a printed circuit board with contact areas thereon through which a circuit is completed when a portion of a sheet of metal impregnated elastomeric material is pressed thereagainst by depressing a push button. However, in this device as in all other similar devices, a plurality of electrical terminals extend outwardly from the printed circuit board and require laborious and time-consuming hard wiring thereto to connect the switch to the circuitry it is desired to operate. This hard wiring is generally very costly and requires considerable additional space.